The Danish artist has invited the
locals to take part in the spectacular funeral of his Hans
Christian Andersen sculpture. The funeral procession begins
at Flakhaven (Town Hall sq.) on October 8th at 2 p.m. and
proceeds to Odense harbour. After the happening the artist
serves funeral beer to the grieving locals.

The great
H.C.A. sculpture has actually stood in the town hall square
of the city (Flakhaven) for the last 5 years where it is
probably the most often photographed sculpture in Odense.
Originally the sculpture was to have been part of The Storyteller's Fountain, a Hans
Christian Andersen water sculpture which was to be composed
of several hundreds of connected sculptures illustrating
Andersen's complex fairytale universe. However this project
is now suspended.

The sculpture was supposed to be an
interactive sculpture around which a storyteller tradition
would evolve. Therefore it was a necessary condition that
the sculpture be placed in the centre of Odense, which many
people, including the store owners of the inner city, were
looking forward to.

A common collection committee, the
city council and a local fund succeeded in raising all the
money for the project. The municipality was asked to find a
suitable place but then everything came to a standstill -
due to the financial crisis the fund collapsed, the city
council cut back on their contribution - on the other hand,
in August 2011 the administration found four altogether
unsuitable places far away from the centre.

The project is
now suspended in agreement with of the common collection
committee who believe they would let down the local donors,
if they accepted a place outside the centre. Galschiot has
instead decided to literally bury the sculpture.

"At one
point the culture department talked about placing the
sculpture by Odense harbour in order to attract tourists to
the area. Now that the project is definitively suspended, I
think I will comply with their wish - maybe not in the way
that they had expected but on the other hand, it won’t
cost them anything" says the artist with a little smile and
adds: "I think it is a very suitable ending to put The
Storyteller's Fountain to rest by creating a new story."

"By the way, I will exhume the sculpture again in order
to take part in a small resurrection ceremony on Hans
Christian Andersen’s birthday April 2nd 2012. Then we can
drive him to the city centre where he can gaze upon the city
for a week or so, and then he will probably be reburied",
concludes Galschiot who has just bought one hundred bottles
of French Champagne for the resurrection. He hopes that this
burial/resurrection happening will be an annual tradition in
Odense.

The story of The Storyteller's Fountain is
in itself a sort of modern H.C. Andersen fairytale:

**
First the inhabitants collected money.

** Then the town
council unanimously granted 4 million DKK and a local fund
gave 2.5 million.

** Now the administrators of the city
were asked to find a place for the unequalled artwork.

**
Then everything was brought into a standstill for several
years, while the civil servants of the city worked.

** 2
years later the financial crisis occurred, and the local
fund collapsed because of speculations on the stock market,
and when the clever civil servants and politicians had not
yet collected the 2.5 million, the money simply disappeared
.*

* But then the local authority realized that they also
needed money, and so they took 3 millions from the cash box
dedicated to the sculpture.

** After 4 years the civil
servants had finally found some suitable locations. But! Now
most of the money was lost leaving only 2 million, and the
sculpture had to be decimated into being just a shadow of
its former self.

** However the administrators'
suggestions for the placement of the sculpture were all far,
far away from the city centre, and therefore they could not
honor the intentions about creating a living storyteller
tradition in the centre of the city as desired from the
common collection committee, the local community as well as
the artist.

Jens Galschiot, Denmark, born 1954,
sculptor. He stakes his art to defend the ethical values of
our society, regardless of political, religious or economic
interests. His sculptures suddenly appear in public areas
and start the performance. Best known are My Inner Beast
(European cities in 1993) and the Pillar of Shame (Hong
Kong, Mexico and Brazil).

The projects are financed,
partly by individuals and organizations, but the larger part
of the finances come from the sale of Galschiot's bronze
sculptures to art collectors all over the world. He has a
huge industrial area in Odense, Denmark with a bronze
foundry, gallery and workshop.

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